Best solo top champ

Usually I queue with two friends, one ALWAYS plays adc and the other plays mid 90% of the time, leaving me to support, jungle or top. I pretty much have support on lock down, and find it incredibly boring. Jungling is....a weakness of mine. I'm not very good at ganking or invading the other jungle, which is why it's a weakness of mine. I've avoided top like the plague, and I don't know why. I guess I'm just afraid that I'll feed top because of my inexperience there.

That said, I would like to get better at it, so what is your favorite solo top champ? Obviously it depends on who you are playing against top and what your team comp is, but who is your "go-to" top champ? Also, what are some tips for a novice at top? How aggressive should I be at top?

I love to play Cho AP top, and now that ppl seem to like to put bruisers at mid, it is getting even better. I'm not pure top laner btw, I can take whichever spot is needed.
As for how you should be on the lane, I would say check the other guy 1st, if he is afraid of you, poke him as much as you can (don't forget to ward for the jungler), if he seems to be agressive, let the lane come back, farm under your turret and ask the jungler for a gank if he is nearby. Last, if the guy that you are going against, leaves the lane often, you have 2 choices: pursue him and counter whatever he is doing, or push the lane and make his turret kill your minions, denying him xp/farm.
Top is fun to play

If you're afraid of top lane then I'm going to suggest Vlad/Jayce/Kennen. They're some of the safest top lane champions to exist because of their range and ability to escape ganks.

Vladimir is a little weak until you get some items and your Q to a higher rank, but his sustain is great and W is great for escaping ganks when you time it to avoid CC. He also has an awesome mid/late game and his ult is great for team fights.

Kennen also has the ability to farm from range and his little lightning rush or w/e it is to make him hard to gank. Also Kennen's ult makes some people afraid to tower dive him. He is more of a team fighter than a duelist because of how powerful his ult is when you're stunning multiple targets.

Jayce is just Jayce. He can farm from super long range once his shockblast/gate combo can 1 shot creeps. If you get jumped you can just swap to hammer and smack them away. Also he is pretty hard to catch with his two speed boosts. The bonus is that even while being such a safe champion he can also be a bully. His shock blast gate combo HURTS if you get farmed. Jayce is a great thing to have in a poke war.

I wouldn't suggest being aggressive if you're not confident that you're going to come out on top. If you screw up and die it only gets worse. There are times where it's obvious that you can go aggressive like having a level advantage by getting 2 or 6 first on a champion that gets a power boost by having that advantage. Like Kayle getting 2 first is a very scary thing to see when you're just level 1. Darius level 6 is obviously a nightmare if he gets it first.

There are definitely a few champs that are more well rounded than others for solo queue or w/e. I'd recommend learning olaf, since he counters 99% of melee champions hard. Outside of that, the standard jayce / jax / irelia / darius will get you far.

Usually either 21 Offense and 9 Defense, or vice versa (9/21). I think it depends on the champion, and your team. Sometimes you need to tank, and sometimes you want to dive the enemy AD carry and murder their face.

Also, I wonder how Kennen would do top now, especially with the influx of short-range bruisers and Teemo. If you play him right, they'll never get you.

Jax, Shen, Darius or Yorick. Superior in 1v1 and that's what top is usually about. Good Yorick/Shen can just steamroll top and stay there forever. Darius can 1v2 with his ulti up, and Jax has just amazing skillset. Shen's ulti gives you some global presence, quite important in many games.

I seem to have sucess playing Volibear as a solo top. He can pretty much stay farming top until lvl 6, then afterwards own 1v2 and from lvl 10 can pretty much ignore towers with his ulti up. I level W and Q early, dropping one point in E to make sure I have the slow, but do not finish that skill until the others are maxed out. W pretty much one shots peeps at 50% HP from level 10 so it really, really owns and Q scares the life out of the enemy, watching them run as soon as you drop to all fours! I dont hear much about Volibear though so maybe I'm not the norm....

Originally Posted by Cybran

Britain crushed the Egyptians as well. This is what they used to do, kill the people who want independence. Haven't any of you seen Brave heart? Falklands, Northern Ireland and Scotland should be able to break free like India did.

#3 - Be pro at Singed and laugh hysterically in 95% of games you play...just beware of strong Teemo players.

"There are two types of guys in this world. Guys who sniff their fingers after scratching their balls, and dirty fucking liars." -StylesClashv3
"Elo Hell is where the Ego is greater than the Elo." -Bystekhilcar

I really enjoy playing Malphite solo top, it is very fun and he is strong. I kind of feel invincible. I my last match I went 27/3/12, and I got an indirect penta kill. I ultied into 3 people, 2 of which died from the initial blast, 1 died from my E and the extra hit, and the two remaining I had to chase a little bit but they too, died to my hand/rock/Gauntlet. This was when I just had 8 kills too.